A Pakistan Army soldier and a civilian were killed and over a dozen others, mostly army troops, were wounded in a bomb blast targeting a military truck in Karachi late Thursday.
The blast took place around 10:00pm at Korangi No. 5 outside the Rangers Headquarters Wing 84 when a truck carrying Pakistan Army troops cruised past, police said. Two persons were killed and 18 others, including 11 army troops, were injured. The fatalities were identified as Lance Naik Tariq and passerby Kashif.
Law enforcers threw a security cordon around the areas after the blast. They also fired gunshots into the air after they discovered another bomb weighing over 10kgs at the site. Explosive experts were called in to defuse the second device.
“It was a remotely-detonated Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and the apparent target was the army truck,” DIG District East Captain (retd) Tahir Naveed said of the first bomb. He added that the bomb weighed around 6kgs and it was planted in a roadside canister. A military official confirmed the truck was the target.
The casualties were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where a state of emergency was declared. Medics said that some of the injured were in critical condition. Some of the injured soldiers were also driven to military hospitals in the city.
The targeted army troops were returning to Malir Cantt after completing their election duty at NA-254.
Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah strongly condemned the attack and directed the provincial police chief to investigate the incident and submit the report at the earliest.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2013.
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What another one ! Nothing new here, the worrying thing is that it may not even be classed as newsworthy item in near future, due to its daily occurrences. Yet the Interior Minister is still planning and discussing policy, while Army is simply too busy twiddling its thumbs ! Let's face it, its beyond Pakistan Army's ability to deal with these elements !